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Without Alice Cooper there would be no KISS. Without KISS there's no Motley Crue. No Crue, no Poison. My point is this: sometimes it only takes one or two artists to open the doors of both inspiration and market acceptance for generations of new artists. Each successive act stands on the shoulders of the one who came before - often with diminishing results. Like a human pyramid you're likely to find a slighter variety of the same creature the further you get from the foundation.
Then again, without Woody Guthrie there would be no Bob Dylan, and without Dylan... well, there are too many outstanding artists to mention. When you start with a strong foundation there are few limits to how far or wide you can build.
Hail Social plays a more rockist version of the danceable guitar pop that's been buttering MTV's bread for the last few years. They've got the four-on-the-floor beats and prominently snakey bassline melodies to get toes tapping, plus loud chattery guitars to add texture and keep harmony. Singer and guitar player Dayve Hawk describes their sound on AAM as "80s roller-skating music played by a metal band." The key to his metal reference may lie in his own voice which pushes through with a clarity and ambition seldom heard from their more-dead-panned-and-dapper-than-though contemporaries. And you could easily supplant most of the songs into a Don Johnson or Kevin Bacon feature - you know, the part where the guy is running really fast out of some sort of frustration, or working hard at a dead end job but sees the bigger picture.
Their success in the long run will depend on the longevity of the New New Wave as led by the raft of bands currently mining 80s alt-pop and 70s disco and punk. Without Joy Division and Bowie there wouldn't be Franz Ferdinand and Interpol. No Interpol, no Killers, etc... And without those bands to define the scene Hail Social might stand out, for better or worse, as a musical anomaly or a shining example of how the kids are gonna rock - if they get a record deal at all. It's catchy and loads of amped up fun but it feels like it's living right on the surface with little mystery or charism to invite a deeper look.
Also an easy candidate for worst album cover of the year. Maybe ever.
The problem I see with the deluge of punk-lite, emo-punk or punk-pop kids are spooning up these days (ponk? - let's see if that one sticks) is just that, a lot of it feels like it's for kids, by kids. You can blame the jerks in marketing or MTV or whoever but I'm pretty sure it's not just the image, it's the content - so much coming-of-angst and three chord rocket sauce without the heft of abstract thought, time changes or dynamic shifts.
I realize I'm rapidly getting too old to listen to and write about pop music especially considering I'm not getting paid to do it, but I would like to think that there are a few remaining grown men with all the warts and scars that come with the territory willing to shred their own vocal chords and a guitar or two in the name of nothing in particular. If redundant ponk rock is the illness then the Bear vs. Shark brand of full-grown punk may just be the cure.
As the name implies, Bear vs. Shark is muscular and aggressive. However, while metal and punk can sometimes be all about faster, louder, harder, meaner Bear vs. Shark do not loose their sense of musicality, dynamism and harmony in pursuit of eviscerating their listeners - entirely. Think Fugazi on a Henry Rollins trip with Doug Martsch (Built to Spill) playing really loud guitar. It's nearly impossible to say what any of the songs are about but the sound is coarse, up front, full of blood and guts, and pimple-free - a stellar reminder of how grown ups behave when anarchy sets in. Beautifully, epically self-destructive.
I heard this and immediately recommended it to a friend as "Dave Matthews for people who hate Dave Matthews." This friend then confessed that he doesn't hate Dave Matthews as much as he knows he should in order to maintain any sort of cred. He, the friend, is above suspicion and I'm not here to out anybody. Hell I own "Under the Table and Dreaming" AND "Crash" so I'm clearly no hater myself. However I haven't seen "Because of Winn-Dixie" yet. My friend says Matthews is good in it though.
M. Ward gets away with doing what Matthews, Ben Harper, Jack Johnson and John Mayer (and even Gomez, a little) are doing but without sounding like one of the crowd. Stylistically, yes, he's a guy busy being good at playing an acoustic guitar and singing the soft shoed jangle-blues. But Ward leaves a few threads exposed which, when followed, trace back to deeper roots and branch across a wider spectrum. I figured I'd find something to appreciate in "Transistor Radio" after reading all the kudos it has accumulated since its release but I was surprised to find myself genuinely touched.
